


bus fare to ogden

by thylionheart



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: AU, Emotional Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21916225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thylionheart/pseuds/thylionheart
Summary: After EJ tells the drama club about Gina's past schemes during Ashlyn's Thanksgiving party, Ricky pays Gina an unexpected visit.*an AU of episode 7*
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 193





	bus fare to ogden

**Author's Note:**

> So, a few things first...I started writing this before episode 7 aired, and because of that, it's an AU. That means that Gina's mom doesn't work for FEMA, she didn't get the call that she's moving, when Ricky learns about his mother's boyfriend is different, and, most upsetting, there is no hat :'(
> 
> In this fic, both Gina's characterization and her mother's are based on Gina's old character bio, which said that she had played Annie in a Canadian production of the musical of the same name and that her mother was a "stage mother", and also off of a leaked audition script, which characterized her mother as being unrelenting, ambitious, and pushing Gina to be the best to a negative degree. That's how I imagined her mother to be up until episode 7, so that's how she is in this fic.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

* * *

For the first time in her life, Gina Porter called an Uber.

She didn’t have any other choice. It was a two-mile walk back to her house, a walk she wasn’t stupid enough to take alone in the dark. Her mother wouldn’t be home from work for another half hour, and Ricky had borrowed his dad’s truck to drive them both to Ashlyn’s party. There was no way he’d be willing to take her home now. Not after…everything.

Thankfully, there was a female driver available, a bright-eyed woman named Lynsie. Even with this mildly comforting fact, Gina still clutched a small canister of pepper spray in her hand, hidden within the pocket of her peacoat, the whole ride home.

Once safely inside her house, she made sure to give Lynsie a big tip for not kidnapping or murdering her. She didn’t bother to switch on the living room or hall lights as she walked listlessly to her room.

Of all nights for EJ to embrace radical honesty, it had to be tonight. In the middle of the party, no less, right when Gina was riding on the high of her and her team’s win. It had all happened so abruptly; Ricky’s face had fallen from a bright smile to a confused, blank scowl in the blink of an eye. That expression had branded itself in Gina’s mind, searing her eyes and throat, refusing to give her even a moment’s peace. It remained there, unrelenting, as she threw her bag onto her desk, hung her coat in her closet, and collapsed onto her bed.

Twenty minutes passed by. Gina laid unmoving and unfeeling atop her covers, clutching Violet—her childhood rag doll—tight to her chest. Though her head pounded from holding back tears, the rest of her body felt numb, like she didn’t have the energy to cry.

That was how her mother found her. She sat next to her daughter, groaning a little when she did so. Her curls were frizzy from the winter wind and her cheeks red from the cold. The scent of shea butter and ink wafted over Gina.

“Gina? Is everything okay? What happened?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled. She couldn’t bring herself to look her mother in the eyes.

“It doesn’t look like nothing. Didn’t you say you were going to a party earlier?” Her voice suddenly lowered, taking on a darker tone. “Did something happen there?”

“It’s not anything like that,” Gina hurriedly said, the implication behind her mother’s words snapping her out of her gloom—but only for a moment. “It’s…everyone found out what I did. The whole wonderstudy thing. EJ told them, and they all turned on me. Even Ricky,” she finished in a whisper.

“Oh, Speck, I’m sorry,” her mother cooed, stroking her hair. Gina tensed; hidden within her mother’s tone was a sliver of condescension. “But I warned you that this would happen, didn’t I? This is what happens when you start thinking of your competition as your friends. Especially regarding that Ricky kid. Isn’t it for the best that you won’t be spending time with him anymore? I saw how much he changed you. He made you soft. He stole your drive, your ambition. You let him wrap you around his finger.”

Gina sniffled. She wrapped her arms tighter around her doll, its purple yarn-like hair tickling her chin. What if she liked the way she softened around Ricky? What if he brought out a part of her that had always been there, tucked away behind a wall of brick and mortar like Poe’s Fortunato?

Did that make her mother Montresor?

“Hey, hey, shh.” Moving Gina’s loose curls out of her eyes, her mother said, “Everything is going to be okay. Remember: rejection is just another opportunity to improve yourself. At least now you can go back to working hard on getting the part you deserve, right?”

Gina’s stomach churned as she processed her mother’s words. “That’s exactly what got me in this mess.”

Her mother scoffed. “Mess? What mess? You don’t need them. What have I always told you? Go on, say it.”

“…I am all that I need.” The words felt heavy on her tongue.

“That’s my girl.” Leaning down, her mother pecked her temple. “You are all that you need. No more moping around, alright? Run through your lines, then get a start on your homework. I’ll check in around ten to quiz you.”

Gina didn’t have the energy to argue. Her mother squeezed her arm before leaving the room. The moment the door closed behind her, she buried her face in her pillow and finally allowed herself to cry.

* * *

Gina stayed in bed for nearly an hour, alternating between crying and staring blankly at the wall. When she finally peeled herself off her comforter and checked the time on her phone, it was a couple minutes past nine. She sighed. Forget practicing her lines; she needed to start working on her homework. Mrs. Irving, their math teacher, had cruelly assigned algebra II book work over Thanksgiving break.

Her headphones were on her nightstand, next to a box of Kleenex. Gina grabbed a few tissues, dried her eyes and nose, and put her headphones on. Lately, all she’d been listening to were the original _High School Musical_ soundtracks, but now she switched to one of her many study playlists. She needed a distraction from the musical and everyone involved, and she didn’t think she could handle listening to Troy and Gabriella singing about reaching the stars without crying.

Logarithms proved to be an effective distraction from her woes. It took all of her concentration to solve the functions and graph the results. She sank so deep into the zone, she didn’t realize that Bet On It had started playing until Zac Efron’s voice slipped into her awareness. Gina’s pencil stilled. She’d forgotten that she had added this song to Study Playlist #4 a few weeks back.

Sighing, she made to skip the song, but the lyrics of the first pre-chorus gave her pause.

_(Did you ever) lose yourself to get what you want?_

_(Did you ever) get on a ride then wanna get off?_

_(Did you ever) push away the ones you should've held close?_

_Did you ever let go? Did you ever not know?_

Oof. That hit a little too close to home.

Even though the lyrics stung, Gina couldn’t help but imagine, for a moment, Ricky covering this song with just his guitar and his raw, gorgeous voice. Her stomach did a somersault and she rubbed her eyes with her fingers, groaning. _Not helping_.

The volume of her music suddenly dipped, her phone buzzing with a text. Gina froze. It was probably just Miss Jenn, reminding the group chat that they had an early-morning rehearsal on Monday, but she’d be lying to herself if she said she didn’t hope it was Ricky. Deep down, she knew she shouldn’t. After everything that had gone down, she didn’t know if she could handle any more.

Yet she couldn’t stop herself from stealing a glance at the screen. Her heart clenched when she saw Ricky’s name.

_Does your bedroom window have curtains with a blue & white zig-zag pattern on it?_

“What…?” Gina whispered, rereading the text three times so she could be sure she wasn’t imagining things. The only way he’d know to ask that is if he…no way.

Tugging her headphones off her ears and around her neck, Gina scrambled off her bed and hurried over to her window. She threw back the curtains—which did, in fact, have a blue and white chevron pattern. The lights in her room turned her window into a black mirror, preventing her from seeing outside. Gina hesitated. There was no way Ricky was actually outside her bedroom window. Why would he be?

The look on his face at Ashlyn’s party earlier that night, when EJ had told everyone about Gina’s schemes, had shattered her heart. His big, doe-like eyes had grown wide, staring at her like he was begging her to deny everything. But she couldn’t. Not with him looking at her like that.

Kourtney had been the first to speak. “Nini was right—you _did_ steal her phone! And you gave it to EJ so he could snoop through it.”

“So you basically broke them up,” Natalie, their stage manager, had added, her nose crinkling like she smelled something rotten. “Then you took EJ to homecoming to, what—stir up even more drama? Yikes.”

Throughout this exchange, Ricky’s eyes had never left Gina. His voice had cracked when he’d asked, “Why?”

Gina had opened her mouth, though she hadn’t known exactly what she’d say. But EJ had spoken first. “She wanted to play Gabriella.”

Gina flinched, biting her lip to force herself out of the memory. She couldn’t bear to replay the betrayal that had carved itself across Ricky’s face in that moment. Once fully back in the present, she slowly unlatched her window, fingers trembling.

Light from her bedroom spilled onto the ground below. It caught on auburn curls and large brown eyes.

“Ricky?”

It was him, alright—standing beneath her window with his skateboard at his feet and his gaze locked on hers. He looked a little out of breath.

“Why doesn’t your window have a screen?”

Gina blinked, too stunned by the fact that he was standing beneath her window to dwell on how ridiculous of a question that was. “Our…our landlord didn’t provide any. What are you doing here?”

“Landlord?”

“We’re renting. Ricky—”

“Can I come up? I’d ask you to come down, but it’s pretty chilly out here.”

Through the thin walls, Gina could hear the buzz of the TV. Her thoughts shifted frantically to her mother. If she was caught with a boy in her room—and not just any boy, but _Ricky_ — “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Uh, yeah, I, uh…kinda figured by the way your mom slammed the door in my face.”

“She—what?”

Scratching his neck, Ricky said, “I was the one who rang the doorbell like, five minutes ago. You didn’t think I’d come to your window without trying the front door first, did you?”

“I didn’t hear the doorbell.” Gina gestured toward her headphones, still slung around her neck. A part of her wanted to laugh; how very Troy of him to sneak around to her window after being turned away at the front door. But unlike Troy, Ricky wasn’t the one who had screwed everything up. She was.

Ricky pouted, his brow furrowing. “Oh.”

“You didn’t answer my first question.” Wariness made Gina’s voice sound gravelly. “Why are you here?”

“I want to talk.” He shifted from foot to foot, then coughed. “I…I think we need to talk.”

Gina’s stomach lurched. As much as his words sparked hope in her, they sparked fear as well. Her walls crept back up and she curtly said, “I thought you summed it up pretty well with, ‘I can’t even look at you.’”

“I’m looking now, aren’t I? Please, Gina.”

Gina squeezed her eyes shut. A heartbeat later, she sighed. “I don’t even know if you can make it up here.” Her house might have been a single story, but it was still elevated on a sizable foundation. The bottom of the window was nearly two feet above Ricky’s head. He could reach the sill just by raising his arms, though that didn’t necessarily mean he could pull himself up.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yeah, but—”

Ricky took several steps back, then ran at the wall and jumped, his hands catching hold of her windowsill and his feet planting against the side of the house. It took him less than five seconds to climb up and into her room.

“…Okay, then,” mumbled Gina. With his presence, it was like her room had undergone a shift in atmospheric pressure; the air felt thinner, making it harder for her to breathe. Unable to meet his eyes, she moved past him to close the window. Once it was latched, she didn’t turn around; she could only bring herself to look at his reflection in the black glass. “Talk.”

Ricky entwined his fingers together, his expression apprehensive. “I…um. I’m actually not entirely sure what I wanted to say. I just knew that I…needed to see you. You…you have a lovely room,” he added with an awkward, huffing laugh.

“Well, you’ve seen me.” Gina started unlatching her window, her throat burning. She’d actually let herself hope that he wanted to make up. How naive of her. “And if you don’t have anything else to say, then you might as well leave.”

Ricky rushed forward, his hand catching the window. “Gina, wait. Please.”

His breath was warm and tickled her ear. She swallowed, her skin shivering with a pleasant but also nerve-wracking buzz, and finally faced him. “Fine,” she whispered. “But you have to leave before ten. That’s when my mom comes in and tests me on my lines.”

Ricky nodded, his lips mouthing the word, “Okay.” Gina couldn’t help but follow the movement with her eyes, then caught herself and turned away. She took off her headphones and set them on her desk. Walking to her bed, she sat down in the middle of it with her legs in the lotus position. Ricky followed her, choosing to sit on the edge of her bed an arm’s length away.

For a solid minute, they only sat in silence. Ricky twisted his ring around his left forefinger, his gaze flitting around her room before finally settling on Gina herself. “I guess…first things first, I—I don’t…I don’t understand why you’d want to sabotage Nini just to play Gabriella.”

Gina bit her lip. “I don’t anymore.”

“I want to believe you, Gina, I do. But even if that’s true, you still did at some point.”

“Yeah.” Dark curls danced around her brow as she bowed her head. “I did.”

She could feel Ricky’s gaze on her, prickling her skin. “So, why? Why would you stoop so low to try and get the part?”

The heater kicked on with a rumbling hum, like white noise; Gina focused on the sound as she gathered her thoughts. She’d told Ricky more about her personal life than anyone else at the school…but she hadn’t told him everything.

“When I was eleven…I was in a Canadian production of _Annie_. I played Annie. We toured all across Canada.”

Ricky blinked. “Uh. Okay. Wow. Not where I was expecting this to go.”

Definitely not the worst reaction he could’ve had. Gina peeked up at him and saw that, despite his confusion, she had his full attention. “That’s…when I peaked,” she continued. “I auditioned for some Broadway roles— _Annie_ again, _Into the Woods_ , _The Lion King_ —but the only parts I could land were small shows put on by local community theaters or whatever school I was enrolled in at the time.”

“I really don’t get how this explains you sabotaging Nini,” Ricky said slowly, shaking his head, but Gina held up her hand.

“I’m not done.” She waited a beat to see if he would keep trying to talk; when he didn’t, she continued. “In every show I did, getting anything less than the lead was never enough for my mom.”

Something in Ricky’s demeanor changed. His scowl softened; his mouth formed an O. Gina couldn’t handle the pity that flooded his eyes, and so lowered her gaze. There was a loose thread on her comforter. She twirled it around her finger.

“Most of the time, if I wasn’t playing a lead, she’d just pull me out of the play entirely. She thought it was a waste of time, a waste of my potential. So instead, she’d put me in vocal lessons, dance lessons, acting lessons—I usually didn’t get home until past eight. Then, when I was thirteen, my mom enrolled me at Idyllwild Arts Academy. In California. That place taught me a lot of what I know. But…um.”

Gina’s voice cracked. She rolled her eyes up to stare at the ceiling, willing the sting of tears to go away.

“It was really competitive. Like, insanely competitive. What I said, at the skate park, about how it’s eat or get eaten for transfer students like me? I learned that at Idyllwild. You can’t show any fear, any insecurity, or you’ll be ripped apart. You have to be the _best_ —or you’re worth nothing.”

The bed shook as Ricky scooted closer to her. “Gina…”

She cut him off, too afraid that any sympathy he extended to her would cause her to fall apart completely. “In the end, we couldn’t afford the tuition, and I wasn’t able to earn a scholarship. So when my mom’s job offered her a transfer, we moved out here. I got the chance to perform in a couple of small community theater productions over the summer, which got me excited about pursuing drama again. Excited enough that when Miss Jenn announced auditions for _High School Musical_ , I was stoked. I felt like here, I could make my mom happy. Here, I could be number one, easy. But I’m not.”

Gina paused, feeling breathless, then swallowed hard. She locked eyes with Ricky. Sadness made the corners of his mouth curve downward.

“You…” Gina’s voice was barely more than a breath, “You made me feel like I don’t have to be.”

Ricky’s lips parted, his eyes widening a smidge. “Me?”

“Yeah. You.”

He searched her eyes. Gina felt like he could see straight through her. If he were anyone else, this level of vulnerability would have felt agonizing. But with Ricky, though she still felt afraid, she also felt a kind of strange relief.

“Gina…I need to know…” Ricky licked his lips and pinched his eyebrows together, nerves evidently scrawled across his face. “How much of…everything…was just apart of your plan to play Gabriella?”

The way he said _everything_ caused goosebumps to rise along Gina’s arms. By his tone, she understood immediately that by _everything_ , he meant everything that had happened between _them_.

“Ricky.” Her voice quavered. Closing her eyes, she took a breath through her nose, let it escape her lips, and met his gaze as evenly as she could. “I swear to you, starting from the moment you drove me home from homecoming, I threw out the plan. I finally…I realized that I wouldn’t be happy as Gabriella. My mom’s the one who wants me to play her. I just want…friends. Family.”

Ricky studied her face. Ten excruciating seconds passed; then, his expression smoothed out, his shoulders relaxed, and, slowly, he offered her his hand. “I believe you.”

Relief washed over Gina. She sighed, feeling a tiny smile start to spread across her face. But just as she reached for his hand, she heard a floorboard in the hall creak. Panic jolted through her.

Her mother was coming.

Gina snatched Ricky’s hand and shot to her feet, tugging him across the room to her closet. He must have heard the creaking too, because he said nothing and made no argument when Gina pushed him inside and slid the door shut.

And not a moment too soon. The bedroom door flung open, revealing her mother’s suspicious glower. She had changed into sweatpants and slippers, her hair in a topknot. “Are you watching YouTube instead of doing your homework?”

Gina almost laughed at the accusation. If that had been the case, it wouldn’t have been the first time her mother had caught her watching Rosanna Pansino videos when she should have been studying. But instead of laughing, she shrugged and lied, as nonchalantly as she could, “No, I finished my homework. I’ve just been, uh, rehearsing my lines.”

“I heard voices. Plural.”

“That was just me alternating characters, changing voices. I’m going over the scene where Gabriella’s heartbroken over Troy.”

Gina’s voice wobbled at the end of the sentence. Knowing that “Troy” was four feet away, hidden in her closet, made her hyperaware of every tiny thing: the disapproving way her mother’s lips pursed together, her own heart pulsing painfully against her ribs, and, most chilling of all, the quiet rattle of hangers clattering together.

By some miracle—or maybe just the still-humming heater—her mother didn’t hear anything. Sighing, she tugged her navy cardigan tighter around her frame and crossed her arms. “You’re thinking about that Ricky kid again, aren’t you? I told you, forget about him. He’d never support you as Gabriella anyway, you know that. He’s just getting in your way.”

Then why was he here, hiding in her closet, trying to fix things with her? The thought gave her a boost of courage—and defiance. “‘Forget him?’ Mom, he’s the closest friend I’ve had in years. _Years_. How can you ask me to just forget him?”

Rolling her eyes, her mother let out a grating huff of air. “This isn’t kindergarten, Gina Marie. This is your _future_. You’re putting on _High School Musical_ where _High School Musical_ was filmed, for heaven’s sake. Press will likely be there to cover opening night—talent scouts, even! You cannot let some stupid _boy_ keep you from scoring the lead.”

“And what if I don’t want to play the lead?” Gina shot back. “What if I don’t want to play Gabriella?”

Any compassion that she’d seen in her mother’s eyes disappeared, replaced with a simmering anger. Gina bit the inside of her cheek, cursing over and over in her head.

“I—I mean, Gabriella may be the lead, but as Taylor I get to show off my dancing. I can’t do that as Gabriella. And playing Taylor is really so much fun—”

“We didn’t move here for you to have _fun_!” Her mother’s shout was so loud that Gina winced, her eardrums stinging and her chest tightening with fear. “We moved here because you couldn’t hack it at Idyllwild!”

Gina took a couple steps back. Ducking her head, she stared at the floor. Ricky had tracked some dirt onto the carpet. Hopefully her mother wouldn’t see.

“Uch.” With a wave of her hand, her mother crossed the room to grab Gina’s script off her bed. “You know what? End of discussion. I don’t want to hear any more whining about this; not today, not ever. If I do, no more drama club. Not if all it does for you is turn you into a sniveling doormat. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” whispered Gina. A tear slid down her cheek; she tried to furtively wipe it away.

“Good. Now, we might as well run through your lines. No tears, you hear me? Compartmentalize. Acting means ignoring your own feelings to step into the character’s.”

Gina forced herself not to glance forlornly at her closet. Rehearsing her lines under her mother’s shrewd eye usually took between fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on how much she concentrated. She’d have to nail every single word, every pause and inflection, for Ricky’s sake.

Either Gina’s acting was particularly flawless that night, or her mother was uncharacteristically lenient. Whatever the case, only fifteen minutes passed before her mother tossed her script onto the bed and left the room. She didn’t bother to wish her daughter goodnight.

Gina let out a heavy whoosh of air. Fighting the urge to cry had left her lungs and throat on fire. After locking her bedroom door, she cleared her throat, rolled her shoulders back, and made sure her face was dry. Only then did she softly call, “Coast is clear.”

The pocket door clunked against its track as Ricky slid it open. His eyes were red-rimmed and as wide as satellite dishes.

She tried to keep her voice steady when she said, “I’m so sorry that you had to wait in there for so long, your legs are probably killing y—”

Ricky didn’t wait for her to finish before enveloping her in his arms. Her breath caught in the back of her throat. The hug was tight, tight like the very first hug they’d shared, when he’d lifted her off her feet and spun her around after they had successfully saved Miss Jenn’s job.

He didn’t say anything. Not when Gina slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, her fingers curling into his jacket. Not when she shuddered with the effort of swallowing tears. Not when a short, choked breath fled her lips like she’d had the wind knocked out of her, not even when a sob finally escaped from her chest. Ricky only held her tighter, one hand rubbing her back, the other beneath her ponytail, holding her head securely against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Gina choked out between sobs. Somewhere in the haze of her mind, she realized this was the first time that night that she’d actually _apologized_ for her actions. “I’m so—I’m so sorry, Ricky, I’m sorry—”

“I know,” he mumbled into her ear, “Okay? We’re okay.”

She buried her face deeper into his hoodie. “I—I…I don’t know what to do…”

Ricky’s hand stilled against her back. After a moment, he drew out of the hug. She missed the warmth of his embrace immediately. Confusion and hurt ripped through Gina’s chest. Had she said something wrong? Why had he pulled away?

She got her answer quickly. Ricky reached into her still-open closet and grabbed her plum-purple peacoat. He took it off its hanger and slung it around Gina’s shoulders.

“What are you—?”

“C’mon,” he told her, rubbing his hands up and down the sides of her arms, “let’s get out of here. Get you some fresh air.”

“Wait,” Gina objected. Her mind was still reeling. What about her mother? What if she found out that Gina had left? What if…

Ricky was looking at her with soft, crinkling, questioning eyes. She could feel his thumb massaging her arm, could smell his heady, spiced cologne. The last thing she wanted right now was for him to leave.

Without her.

“Could you grab my puffy coat instead? The white one? It’s warmer.”

Ricky smiled a gentle smile, then obliged.

* * *

They left her room dark and empty, with pillows shoved under her comforter to make it look like she’d gone to bed. A cliché, maybe, but hopefully an effective one.

The skate park was a twenty-minute walk from her house. On the way, they stopped at a small Starbucks. Ricky bought himself a peppermint hot chocolate while Gina ordered a cinnamon dolce latte. The drinks warmed their hands as they walked in silence.

Half a dozen skaters and bikers were milling about the park when they arrived; Gina was surprised they were there at such a late hour. She and Ricky sat on the staircase leading down into the arena, with Ricky the closest to the railing. He propped his skateboard against it and set his helmet at his feet.

They’d only been at the park for ten minutes before Gina abruptly announced, “I’m gonna tell Miss Jenn what I did.”

Ricky paused mid-sip, furrowing his brow.

“How I stole Nini’s phone,” Gina clarified. “How I tried to sabotage her so I could play Gabriella. And I think…I think it’d be best if I left the show.”

A coughing fit seized Ricky as he choked on his hot chocolate. He set his drink down and covered his coughs with his elbow. “Whoa, what?”

Shrugging, Gina quietly said, “No one’ll want me there anyway. Not after all this.”

“I want you.” In the dim light, she saw his face tinge red. He coughed again. “In the show. I want you to stay in the show.”

Gina pinched her lips together. “How else can I prove to everyone that I’m sorry?”

“…I don’t know,” admitted Ricky. “But there’s gotta be a better way than that. I’m all for taking responsibility and telling Miss Jenn, but don’t leave the show. You belong there. You’re an amazing Taylor and you’ve worked so hard, and…where else would you go after school? Especially since…I mean…your mom…”

“…will be mad at me for quitting.”

“Yeah.”

Sighing, Gina leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. A question that had been plaguing her mind for nearly an hour now arose to the forefront of her thoughts. “Ricky…why did you reach out to me tonight? It kinda seemed like you’d made your mind up about me at the party.”

A sudden heaviness settled over Ricky. His shoulders slumped, his expression grew weary, and his voice was husky when he murmured, “My mom has a new boyfriend.”

“Oh…Ricky, I’m so sorry.” Gina had to fight the impulse to reach over and squeeze his hand. How could he be here, with her, focusing on her and her problems and their relationship, when his own life was in such turmoil?

“I found out after the party,” he continued. Numbness momentarily glazed his eyes. Taking a sharp breath, he blinked once, twice, before saying, “On top of everything that’d just happened, it was…just…” He ran his fingers through his hair, roughly shaking his curls. “I just kept thinking that…maybe this wouldn’t all be happening if my parents had tried harder. If they hadn’t kept using the distance between them—the literal _distance_ —as an excuse to not figure things out. When I found out that my mom was in Chicago to avoid my dad, I remember being so upset at how…how… _resigned_ he was. I wanted him to buy up a plane ticket and fly straight to Chicago to try to save things before it was too late.”

Gina listened in silence. It wasn’t her place to offer advice right now; only an ear to listen with. She didn’t really understand how this had anything to do with her query, but she decided not to question it. Ricky glanced up at her, his gaze so intense that she felt a blush flood her cheeks.

“Then I realized that I was doing exactly what I was so upset at my dad for. I wasn’t trying to listen to your side of things. I let you go home alone, in the dark, not checking to make sure you were safe—which, by the way, I feel really, really awful about, and I’m really glad you made it home safely. I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay. I mean, I got to scratch ‘ride in an Uber’ off my bucket list,” Gina tried to joke, forcing a wry smile.

“It’s really not okay, though,” Ricky argued. “I should’ve taken you back home. I was so ready to just throw in the towel, after, what—something EJ had said? _EJ,_ the guy who literally considers me his nemesis? I didn’t know how much of what he said was the truth, not really. That’s how I knew I needed to talk to you. I…I didn’t want to believe that everything between us was a lie. A part of me kept saying that I shouldn’t trust you after what you did, but I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. So I trusted my gut and…bought a ticket to Chicago, so to speak.”

Gina picked at the sleeve of her drink with her thumbnail, studying the way the cardboard turned fuzzy and flaked off. “I don’t know if I’m worth bus fare to Ogden.”

“You’re worth it to me.” The conviction in Ricky’s voice sent a rush of warmth up the back of Gina’s neck. “‘Cause you’re my friend, Gina. And I care about you.”

Tears welled in the corner’s of Gina’s eyes; she blinked them away and caught his gaze. “I care about you too, Ricky. You’re…you’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Ricky’s face split into a wide, sappy grin. They stared at each other for a minute, neither breaking eye contact. Something thrummed between them; an all-too-familiar tension.

But even though Gina’s heart was lighter than it’d felt since the party, there was still something heavy weighing on her mind. She let her smile fade. “Um…Ricky?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you…did you wanna talk more about your mom?”

Ricky’s smile fell. Looking away, he cleared his throat. “…Not tonight,” he said hoarsely. He heaved a sigh, then glanced back at her. “One thing at a time. But thanks.”

Gina nodded, giving him a tiny, empathetic frown.

Several minutes drifted by, silent but for the whir of wheels and echoes of laughter from skaters. Tilting his head back, Ricky downed the rest of his hot chocolate in one go, stretched his arms above his head, and knocked Gina’s shoulder with his own.

“Y’know, it was right here, this exact spot, where you convinced me not to drop out of the play.”

“I know. I was there,” Gina teased, arching an eyebrow.

“Ha, ha.” Ricky rolled his eyes. His smile was starting to return, soft and genuine. “What I’m trying to say, though, is that if it weren’t for your plan…I would’ve left the show. So, yeah, you’ve done some pretty crappy things, and it stings to know that you didn’t mean what you said at the time, but…you’re still the reason I stayed. You gave me this weird, dorky, insanely talented family.”

“You belong there.” Gina couldn’t help but match his smile as she echoed his words from earlier. How could she not, when he radiated more warmth and light than the sun? “I mean, you are weird, dorky, insanely talented…”

Ricky laughed; it was the first time since the party that she’d heard that beautiful sound. “I’ll cede to two out of three.”

His laugh elicited a giggle from Gina. “I guess you aren’t _that_ weird.”

“You know what I mean.”

Gina set down her drink so she could use her fingers to list off his qualities. “I know that you’re weird, and dorky, and the best guitar player I’ve ever heard. Oh, and you’re also sweet, funny, thoughtful…”

A blush was spreading across Ricky’s face. He let out a flustered chuckle and scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, I don’t…I don’t know about all of that.”

“Well, I do.”

Someone across the park let out a loud whoop. Gina turned to look. A moment later, she felt Ricky’s breath tease her curls, followed by a tender, lingering kiss to her cheek. Once he’d pulled away, she looked at him.

Ricky’s nose was an inch from hers. Neither he nor Gina pulled away. She wondered if he could hear her heart pounding in her ears. A few tense seconds ticked by before he murmured, “Gina, I...”

She cupped his cheek, her fingers ghosting the line of his jaw. Ricky’s breath stilled; his eyes searched hers, then flickered down to her lips. Her pulse quickened. But just as Ricky leaned in, Gina placed her thumb lightly over his lips.

“One thing at a time,” she whispered. With all the chaos swirling around them—their home lives, the play, their healing friendship—the moment simply didn’t feel right. Yet. “Yeah?”

Ricky was quiet for a spell. The corners of his eyes crinkled, his mouth bowing into a gentle smile. “Yeah. Okay. I understand.”

“Thank you.”

They settled into a relaxed but cozy embrace—Ricky slung his arm around Gina’s shoulders, pressing her snugly against his side, while Gina nestled her head in the crook of his neck. The purr of skateboard wheels against concrete was surprisingly calming, lulling Gina’s eyes to shut. She felt Ricky press another kiss to her temple, prompting her to smile. 

Tomorrow, they’d have to confront all the drama in their lives. But until then, Gina was more than willing to sink deeper into Ricky’s arms, certain that the troubles of tomorrow would be easier to face with a friend.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! ♥︎


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